


Shaken

by FallenQueen2



Series: Trials of a Team [3]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Confused!Aretmis, Failsafe, False Deaths, Gen, Guilt filled!Dick, Shaken!Team, simulations, worried!mentors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 01:52:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5988060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenQueen2/pseuds/FallenQueen2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team is shaken up we know that but how shaken are the mentors who are watching helplessly and can't do anything but talk to help the team through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shaken

**Author's Note:**

> The Mentor's POV before, during and after 'Failsafe'.
> 
> Visit my tumblr, don't be shy!  
> http://fallenqueen2.tumblr.com

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Martian Manhunter asked the Young Justice team who were all getting comfortable on metal slabs.

"Yes Uncle John." Megan smiled over at Connor who was petting Wolf's head.

"If you're sure…" Flash was looking at Wally nervously.

"We got this!" Wally gave his uncle thumbs up.

"Should be fun." Artemis said sarcastically and Green Arrow chuckled humorlessly.

"Be careful." Aquaman told Aqualad looking just as nervous as Flash.

"I will my King." Kaldur inclined his head.

Batman gave Robin a look the young teen smirked his trademark smirk pairing it with a two-finger salute before lying back on the metal table.

"Begin the simulation…" Batman ordered and Martian Manhunter's eyes glowed green and the team's eyes closed as they were sucked into the simulation. A machine was hooked up to each member of the team, displaying his or her steady heartbeats.

Everything was going fine; their heart rates increased slightly when they watched the league die. Connor's spiked again, that's' when everything went wrong. All the heartbeats increased dramatically and tears dripped down Megan's cheeks as her body hovered above the table she was on and Artemis heartbeat and brainwaves went so low they were almost gone.

"Why isn't she waking up? She died so she should be waking up!" Oliver cried clutching the blonde's hand.

"She should be waking up, J'onn what is happening!" Batman barked as he looked at the monitors connected to Artemis.

"M'gann's subconscious has taken control of the simulation, she is making the team believe that this is their reality. Artemis's mind believes she is dead and is now in a coma like state. I will enter the simulation to bring them all back." J'onn explained as he placed his hands on either side of Megan's head. His eyes glowed as he entered the simulation.

The mentors had nothing to do but watch in silence. Aquaman teetered on his feet when Kaldur's heartbeat and brainwaves lowered to match Artemis's.

"No. Kaldur…" Aquaman was now copying Green Arrow's position at Kaldur's side.

Minutes passed and Connor's heartbeat and brainwaves lowered as well. Wolf howled in pain dropping his head onto Connor's chest eyes closed.

Batman and Flash noticed as both Robin and Kid Flash's heartbeats spiked up dramatically before falling down to match their teammates.

"Wally!" Flash was sitting on the metal slab beside his nephew's head cradling the redhead in his arms.

"Dick…" Batman (or now he was Bruce) pretty much picked up his son placing his limp body into his lap holding him close.

"Why aren't they waking up?" Flash demanded.

"Give J'onn time." Batman growled before Megan joined the rest of the team's in a coma-like state. John staggered backwards breathing heavily.

"It is done, they should be waking up in a few minutes." He reported holding a hand to his head. As much as the mentor's wanted to keep their holds on their 'kid's' they didn't want to embarrass them in front of the rest of the team and released their holds on the teens.

* * *

Slowly one by one the team woke up. Artemis was the first as she was the first to die; she looked around confused before covering her eyes with her hand swinging her legs over the side of the table. Kaldur was the next one; his eyes snapped open body tense for a fight but relaxed when he saw where he was. Connor woke next looking around confused but a wide smile crossed his lips when he saw Wolf's head on his chest, sitting up he hugged Wolf's head to his chest while petting his fur. Both Wally and Dick woke up gasping at the same time. They bolted up into sitting positions; they locked eyes before looking away awkwardly. Dick drew one of his legs up to his chest breathing deeply as sweat rolled down his face. Wally looked around and visibly relaxed when he saw Artemis alive and well on the table next to him. Megan was the last one to wake up with a gasp, she looked around and happiness was expressed in her eyes.

"You're all alive!" She exclaimed forcing back tears.

"What happened in there?" Batman asked Martian Manhunter drawing Robin's attention to his father, eyes widening behind his sunglasses.

"The simulation… It all went wrong." J'onn was holding his hand to his head.

"Simulation?" Robin asked in a raspy voice.

"Try to remember… What you experience was a training simulation. Manhunter linked the six of you in an artificial reality. You all knew this going in, what you didn't now was that it was a trained for failure simulation. No matter what the team accomplished, it was designed to get worse. Still you were aware that nothing was real including the deaths of the entire Justice League." Batman explained.

"That is why you hardly grieved even when Wolf was killed before your eyes." Manhunter added in and Connor held Wolf more protectively against his chest. "But all that changed when Artemis died."

Artemis's head was bowed and Wally looked over at her worried.

"Though consciously Miss Martian knew that it was not real, her subconscious mind would not tell what was real and what wasn't. She forgot it was only an simulation, and her subconscious took control making all of you forget too."

The team wouldn't look at each other as Megan gasped causing them all to look over at her.

"I-I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed.

"This isn't her fault!" Connor jumped to defend his girlfriend. "Why didn't you stop the simulation?"

"We tried, but M'gann had a death grip on the simulation. Even Artemis who should have awaken upon her death was so convinced she had passed slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to wrestle control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within, but upon entering the reality. I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion; there was too much noise to think clearly, to remember why I was there. The deaths of Aqualad and Superboy helped." Manhunter was explaining and Batman noticed how when the death of Superboy was mentioned Robin flinched and looked away as Wally sent a glare at the boy wonder and Kaldur looked at Robin in surprise.

"But only when the mother ship exploded and Robin and Kid Flash were silenced." Manhunter went on. Robin clenched his fists and glared at his lap as Wally growled looking away from his best friend. "Did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose to shock M'gann out of the simulation before your coma's became real. My apologies, I had no idea a training simulation could be so dangerous… So damaging." Manhunter finished as everyone looked at Megan who had her back turned to them; hand covering her face as Captain Marvel embraced her to help calm her down. Manhunter turned to leave, but swayed on his feet Batman and Flash were at his side.

"As bad as all of that?" Batman asked quietly.

"Perhaps worse." Manhunter admitted just as quietly.

"This isn't what troubles you." Flash added in.

"No mistake." Batman helped Manhunter to his feet. "My niece is untrained and cannot be held responsible for this… For our debacle."

"No one blames her, but clearly we underestimated her abilities." Batman agreed.

"You understate it." Manhunter explained as they looked back at the team who were all silent and still facing Miss Martian. "In terms of raw power, she has the strongest telepathic mind I have ever encounter, stronger by far than my own." He admitted watching his niece sob in Captain Marvel's arms.

"For now lets take them home." Batman nodded at the other mentors who slowly approached the withdrawn teens.

"Robin." Batman grunted and the teen looked up at his father wiping the sweat from his face. He nodded at the unspoken message and slid off the table, he stumbled a bit before righting himself and walking out of the room with Batman following like a giant shadow. He did notice that Robin didn't look back at his team and nor did his team notice his departure.

"Wally… Let's go home." Flash stood beside his nephew who blinked and looked up at his uncle.

"Yeah… Okay." He agreed sending one last look at Artemis before letting his uncle escort him out.

"Artemis are you ready to leave?" Green Arrow asked the blonde slowly.

"…I guess." Came her hushed answer and let Oliver manhandle her out of the room sending a look at Megan who refused to look at her. Connor patted Wolf's head and silently left the room seeing that he would be of no help to Megan, Wolf was hot on his heels not ready to leave his best friend. Aquaman was standing beside Aqualad who nodded silently and left beside his King. Manhunter and Captain Marvel managed to get Megan to her room and stayed with her as she silently cried blaming herself for everything that happened.

* * *

_Aquaman & Aqualad_

"Are you alright Kaldur'ahm? You seem on edge." Aquaman commented as the duo swam towards their home under the water's surface.

"It is nothing my King." Kaldur kept his head down.

"It is not nothing if it is bothering you." Aquaman swam in front of Aqualad stopping him from moving forward. "Kaldur'ahm."

"It is just the… Simulation. I knew that one day I would be killed but I had no idea that my death could be so destructive for the team. I knew Robin was not ready to take command but in the time, I had no choice." Kaldur admitted.

"It sounds like you are placing blame on Robin." Aquaman's eyebrows rose.

"I am not, he did what I would have done… That doesn't however make it right…I do not hold a grudge against him for this and I sincerely hope the others do not either." Kaldur answered after a few moments of thinking. Aquaman nodded agreeing with the teen, hoping the others mainly Kid Flash held no grudge against Robin.

"The team has a week off before heading back to the cave, let us use this time to relax and train together." Aquaman smiled and felt relief when Kaldur sent a small smile in return.

"Yes my King, that sounds very… Nice." Kaldur admitted and the duo swam off again.

* * *

_Green Arrow & Artemis_

"Well… Here we are." Oliver said as he pulled the car into the driveway of Paula Crock's house. Artemis had been silent the whole ride home staring out the window.

"I know I'm not good at this type of thing but… If you want to talk about it… I'm right here." Oliver wanted to place a hand on her shoulder but she looked like she could break apart at any second.

"I just… I didn't think my death would affect them so much." She admitted looking away from the window for the first time.

"You're part of the team why would you think your death wouldn't affect them?" Oliver asked cutting the engine feeling like he might get someplace with the blonde, he wasn't the best at this type of thing (ask Red Arrow) but he was willing to try.

"I know it's just… I never really felt like part of the team… Not until now I guess. Is it bad that I feel like I'm part of the team now? Now that I know about how they truly feel, it's like I have a place now." Artemis admitted rubbing her neck. "But at the same time, I died. I felt like I died and I don't know how to get past that."

"It will take time, but with your team and the league helping you. Everything will work out, just give it time." Oliver said speaking from experience.

"Okay… Thanks Ollie." Artemis smiled opening her door; she gave him a wave before disappearing inside her house.

"Anytime kid." Oliver shook his head as he pulled out of the driveway and started back to Star City.

* * *

_Flash & Kid Flash_

"Want to talk about what happened?" Flash asked as he ran beside Kid Flash.

"Not really." Wally grunted.

"Well we are going to talk about this." Barry decided skidding to a halt making Kid Flash tumbled a bit before righting himself.

"What if I don't want to?" Wally snapped getting angry all over again.

"You need to talk about this, it can eat you up from the inside." Barry said trying his hardest not to add in 'look at bats'.

"Fine, I'm pissed that Robin lied to me. I'm pissed that HIS plan got Superboy killed, that his plan got US killed, that he lied to all of us about Artemis and the league still being alive within the mother ship. I'm just pissed about this whole stupid simulation." Wally ranted before pressed his lips together and his arms crossed signaling he was done talking about this subject.

"See was that so hard?" Barry teased before his face became grim when Wally's words sunk in. He was mad his best friend in the world, his little brother. Something had to be done or else this would tear them apart.

"You know what Robin did was the only way…He did what he had to, from what J'ohn told us, he never agreed or denied the fact that Artemis and the rest of the league were still alive or not." Barry explained softly remembering back to the running commentary Manhunter had going even when he went into Miss Martian's mind.

"I'm done with this conversation Flash." Wally all but snarled as he sped away leaving a small puff of dust in his wake. Barry sighed running his hand over his face sighing loudly.

"Heaven forbid if I have children they are as stubborn as Wally." Before he took off in a cloud of dust.

* * *

_Batman & Robin_

Batman kept one eye on the roads of Gotham and one eye on the sullen little bird in the passenger seat. No running commentary, no begging to drive, no 'to the batmoblie!' nothing. This was unnerving and it wasn't helpful that it was a quiet night in Gotham so there was no 'bad guys' as Robin put it to take down.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Batman grunted.

"…Not really." Robin stated before falling silent once more.

"What happened in there?" He asked eyeing his son once more.

"I made a plan and everyone died because of it, there isn't much more to say." Robin let his shoulders sag in defeat.

"It was the only way, you made a call." Batman wasn't expecting this. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it sure as hell wasn't this.

"Yeah I guess…" Robin muttered. "I bet you Wally hates me and Superboy has every reason to hate me."

"They are your team, your brothers so to say. You will fight but that is just the way family is. Just don't let this hold you back." Batman advised and Robin raised an eyebrow impressed.

"That was pretty good for one of the most anti-social people I know." Robin said cheekily. Batman concealed a grin as his little bird started to whistle and comment on the lack of crime that night. Yeah Dick was going to be all right.


End file.
